There is no shortage of enthusiasm for sound excellence when Per Hallberg is at work. “It’s still a great thrill for me when I sit in the screening room and see it all come together in the finished film,” he confides. “I think of my role as a team leader, and my strength comes from working with highly creative people.” Hallberg’s impressive credit list includes The Bourne Ultimatum, Seabiscuit, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Devil's Advocate, Replacement Killers, and Courage Under Fire, among many others. His work on both The Bourne Ultimatum and Braveheart earned him an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing as well as a British Academy Award and a Golden Reel Award.
A native of Sweden, where he taught high school math and worked as a ski instructor, Hallberg happened to meet Soundelux co-founder Wylie Stateman while visiting Los Angeles and became fascinated with the world of sound for film. Beginning at Soundelux in 1984, he quickly developed his signature approach to sound design and editing.
“It starts when you read the script and you hear the sounds in your mind. You get ideas, feelings, emotions that can help to tell the story. We have such a wealth of material within our library to draw from, which allows us to focus on creating new, better and more spectacular sound effects for each movie. Because I am a Swede, my approach may be somewhat minimal — in many cases when it comes to sound, less is more. There is a time when sound must be huge and intense, but sometimes the subtleties or even the absence of sound can be equally powerful.”
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